The invention relates to building structures and more specifically to firewalls that are required by the building codes in selected wall spaces of apartments, condominiums and other buildings.
Building codes are very specific about having vertical and horizontal firestops in specific open spaces found in the walls and ceilings of apartments, condominiums and other buildings. Building contractors do not always install these required firestops during the initial construction of the buildings and therein lies the problem. As a result of law suits against the building contractors, they are now being required to retro-fit existing structures with firestops in the required open spaces between framing structure and walls. Where nothing is mounted on the existing outer drywall surface the contractor can either remove the entire drywall panel or cut away strips of a drywall panel and remove them and install the required firestops. Oftentimes, there may be cabinets or other structure mounted on or behind the outer wall surface such as plumbing or toilets. This makes it expensive to remove the drywall panel or strips to install the required firestops.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel method for retro-fit forming firestops into selected wall spaces of existing walls of apartments, condominiums and other buildings that eliminates the necessity of removing entire drywall panels or strips thereof.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel method for retro-fit forming firestops into selected wall spaces of existing walls of apartments, condominiums and other buildings that is more economical in terms of man-hour time and materials than existing methods.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel method for retro-fit forming firestops into selected wall spaces of existing walls of apartments, condominiums and other buildings that will bring the structure up to the required code requirements.